A byproduct of running one of America’s most-watched campaigns for the U.S. Senate is, all of a sudden, having a lot of friends you wished you didn’t.This is Rep. Tom Allen’s quandary, and the genesis of his surprising announcement – or declaration, rather – on Monday toward outside parties interested in tearing down his opponent, […]

A fact in Sunday’s editorial regarding Rumford’s scheduled vote, June 10, regarding a charter change to allow co-management with Mexico must be clarified: we spoke too soon. There won’t be a vote on this charter change June 10.Rumford, predictably, has discovered a way to derail a rare issue that their current selectmen can agree upon, […]

For months, Washingtonian mating rituals have occurred behind closed doors between the presidential campaigns of Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama and powerful Democratic superdelegates.Wooing, however, is a process with an ending.One day – and we hope that day is soon – the smitten campaigns expect to have their advances either returned, or respectfully […]

Social capital – the theory that good comes from civic involvement – is not a new concept.L.J. Hanifan, state supervisor of rural schools in West Virginia in 1916, first defined social capital. Individuals, if left to themselves, are helpless socially, he observed. But, when we come in contact with neighbors in partnership and cooperation, our […]

College is a heavy thought for a sixth-grader, but for parents, addressing higher education is something that should be done early as possible. Ask Peter Geiger why.Geiger is evolving his educational philanthropy with the Montello Scholarship Fund, which he announced, clad in his trademark tuxedo, during the Night of the Stars at Montello School earlier […]

Some lawmakers are complaining of rampant misrepresentations about Dirigo Health, the state’s subsidized health insurance plan. Reality about Dirigo, they claim, is distorted by partisan spin and lobbyist half-truths.You know what? They’re right.Straight talk about Dirigo is long overdue. Emphasis on stable funding has prevented discussion about whether Dirigo is worth the funding taxpayers and […]

Like an oil derrick, the Auburn City Council tapped a gusher by proposing to let residents join the city’s heating oil contract: the overflowing consumer frustration at being unable to negotiate better fuel prices.Lone consumers can neither make oil dealers compete nor offer attractive incentives for their individual business. As prices for this precious commodity […]

Perhaps it was only a matter of time before one of the biggest distractions in American politics and education, evolution, arrived in Maine.A member of a Somerset County school district last month urged his fellow members to drop evolution from the high school science curriculum.“You can’t show, observe or prove (evolution), said Matthew Linkletter of […]

Raymond Fortier has declined Canton’s offer to buy his dam on Lake Anasagunticook. Good.Let eminent domain begin.About four years ago, Fortier was warned by the Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management Agency to make needed dam repairs or the state would levy fines and force closure of the dam, because Fortier’s “continued disregard for proper maintenance…[is] […]

Some wise folks, a couple of states over, have an economic notion so mind-bogglingly simple we’re smacking ourselves for not thinking of it first. (We’d like to think it’s because we think too deeply, so we miss the easy stuff.)The notion is a grassroots campaign called “Keep it in Vermont.” It asks civic-minded Green Mountain […]